Maybe it’s because I came to this one right after Enter the Dragonfly, but I thought this was a very good time.
This one tries to be different from the original trilogy in that it's an open-world approach to the Spyro formula. Though it isn’t a major shake-up or anything, it’s more the usual Spyro gameplay except that there are no hub worlds, as all the levels of one world are connected to each other. How well it’s pulled off can vary. Some levels are as simple as walking through a tunnel from one place to another with no shake-ups, while some have transportations between them, which are obvious stand-ins for loading screens, and these transportations can go on for some very long time. In fact, it might be quicker for you to just use the teleportation between Moneybags’ shops to get to another level.
Because of the inter-connected worlds, the gems have been reworked into currency, and while it kind of takes away one of the incentives for you to explore the levels as thoroughly as you could, I can overlook it since the Light Gems and Dragon Eggs are more collected via platforming and exploration. Plus, it means you don't have to spend half an hour going through again and searching the level from top to bottom looking for one gem. One nice detail of the level design is that destroying the main "collectible", the Dark Gems, unlocks a new path in front of you, making the levels feel more dynamic.
Spyro’s control is pretty good, he’s much less stiffer and turns much quicker, maybe kinda too much, as there were some moments where he made some unnecessary 360 spins when I simply pointed the stick towards one direction. He doesn’t have a hover now, and instead has a double jump and it’s a decent compensation, because of the more platform based approach to the collectibles. Said double jump is pretty awkward though, as he can only use it at either the height of his first jump or before. The elemental breaths return from ETD and they are much better utilized here. They are used for different kinds of puzzle solving and are differently effective in dealing with enemies, such as lightning needing to hold the button to defeat enemies or ice just freezing them so you have to charge into them. This adds more to the gameplay even though it isn’t a complicated mechanic.
Hunter was almost the same as Spyro, just using more climbing and arrow play. Not much to say aside from that he’s shockingly underutilized though, which might be because he gets a level all to himself. Sgt. Byrd is basically a revamp version of the speedways from the previous games, where he uses missiles and bombs on the targets from above instead of having to fly by them, and I actually think these are more fun than the original speedways. Sparx’s rail shooter parts are decent. Just pretty easy once you get the hang of them. And finally Blink, whose missions are to find dark crystals underground and blow them up with bombs. I didn’t hate playing this, but it was tedious because of the slower pace compared to the other four. But I was more mid to him.
For some complaints, the bosses are pathetic. It’s way too easy to avoid their attacks, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that the final boss is the easiest one. The flow of the game gets more dull towards the end as the final world is too linear after the previous three had more room for exploration. Even though I died an embarrassing amount of times, the game’s design isn’t that complex. You can easily breeze through it. And the story is nothing to write home about. The characters don't take it seriously, so the player has no reason to as well. Props to Jess Harnell for voicing a great deal of the characters, though.
Now I haven't been the most positive towards a lot of aspects of this game, but I do still think it’s a great game. The platforming was still fun, I had fun with the mini-games (ball rolling in Cloudy Domain and second cannon mission in Stormy Beach aside), and its simplicity works to its appeal.
This one tries to be different from the original trilogy in that it's an open-world approach to the Spyro formula. Though it isn’t a major shake-up or anything, it’s more the usual Spyro gameplay except that there are no hub worlds, as all the levels of one world are connected to each other. How well it’s pulled off can vary. Some levels are as simple as walking through a tunnel from one place to another with no shake-ups, while some have transportations between them, which are obvious stand-ins for loading screens, and these transportations can go on for some very long time. In fact, it might be quicker for you to just use the teleportation between Moneybags’ shops to get to another level.
Because of the inter-connected worlds, the gems have been reworked into currency, and while it kind of takes away one of the incentives for you to explore the levels as thoroughly as you could, I can overlook it since the Light Gems and Dragon Eggs are more collected via platforming and exploration. Plus, it means you don't have to spend half an hour going through again and searching the level from top to bottom looking for one gem. One nice detail of the level design is that destroying the main "collectible", the Dark Gems, unlocks a new path in front of you, making the levels feel more dynamic.
Spyro’s control is pretty good, he’s much less stiffer and turns much quicker, maybe kinda too much, as there were some moments where he made some unnecessary 360 spins when I simply pointed the stick towards one direction. He doesn’t have a hover now, and instead has a double jump and it’s a decent compensation, because of the more platform based approach to the collectibles. Said double jump is pretty awkward though, as he can only use it at either the height of his first jump or before. The elemental breaths return from ETD and they are much better utilized here. They are used for different kinds of puzzle solving and are differently effective in dealing with enemies, such as lightning needing to hold the button to defeat enemies or ice just freezing them so you have to charge into them. This adds more to the gameplay even though it isn’t a complicated mechanic.
Hunter was almost the same as Spyro, just using more climbing and arrow play. Not much to say aside from that he’s shockingly underutilized though, which might be because he gets a level all to himself. Sgt. Byrd is basically a revamp version of the speedways from the previous games, where he uses missiles and bombs on the targets from above instead of having to fly by them, and I actually think these are more fun than the original speedways. Sparx’s rail shooter parts are decent. Just pretty easy once you get the hang of them. And finally Blink, whose missions are to find dark crystals underground and blow them up with bombs. I didn’t hate playing this, but it was tedious because of the slower pace compared to the other four. But I was more mid to him.
For some complaints, the bosses are pathetic. It’s way too easy to avoid their attacks, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that the final boss is the easiest one. The flow of the game gets more dull towards the end as the final world is too linear after the previous three had more room for exploration. Even though I died an embarrassing amount of times, the game’s design isn’t that complex. You can easily breeze through it. And the story is nothing to write home about. The characters don't take it seriously, so the player has no reason to as well. Props to Jess Harnell for voicing a great deal of the characters, though.
Now I haven't been the most positive towards a lot of aspects of this game, but I do still think it’s a great game. The platforming was still fun, I had fun with the mini-games (ball rolling in Cloudy Domain and second cannon mission in Stormy Beach aside), and its simplicity works to its appeal.